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them: You can't hear a picture Paul:

I'm sorry to hear you have had a negative experience, I see you only have one post on the forum so not sure if you have researched here before, this thread is pretty well full of everything you would need to know: If you have found the 501st legion website you can also find info on costumes, they are housed under different detachments, FISD being for Stormtroopers, once you are here most introduce themselves and are normally given info to help them on the way. I actually researched, purchased armor, built it, got 501st approved all without even seeing a local member, it took me 2 weeks to complete, I had been waiting 6 months for it to arrive so had plenty of time to get research done in regards to building, tools needed and soft parts, all the info is here on the forum as well as lots of galleries full of images, shortly after I also obtained Level 2 and L3 approvals. We can't openly speak about amror makers, the info is not forward facing as that is our deal with Lucasfilm/Disney we do not promote or recommend where to purchase armor although we do however have a "vetted sellers list" in the Getting Started area. These makers we know there has not been any negative interactions and all supply quality kits. Research is the key to this hobby, it's not cheap, you do need some basic tool skills. Don't be afraid to ask questions, there are no silly questions, only silly mistakes from not asking, and measure twice and cut once. Research, research, research, you can never do enough

LMO have now ratified, so have sent them an email for a go/no go on this one.

I've done my part :) Transaction ID 4JU10790N7414682W

Hello there, I will be building my Stunt kit (my first TK) when it arrives and I look forward to all your help in the process. To give perspective, I am a 52 year old guy that is 5'6 and 135 pounds. My research led me to order a Walt's kit to best suit my size. As things arrive and I have time to work on them I will call upon my fellow troopers to help me achieve a Tier 2 build! I am a current 501st member as a Tier 2 ROTJ Biker Scout so I have that experience in fitting armor - I hope that's enough!

NEW Detachment Leader Executive Officer Merchandise Officer Legion Elections Hall of Fame FISD Meme's Around the Detachment Trooping Opportunity INFORMATION & AWARD PROGRAMS FISD Tri-Fold Brochure Common FISD Acronyms and TK Glossary Pre Approval Forum 3D Section Field Exercise Award Imperial Attaché Program Master Armorer Award Fire Teams EIB & Centurion: What do these terms mean? Need Help Ask the Deployment Officers Advance to 1500 Advanced Tactics Awards Social Media Newsletter Editor Staff List 2025 Follow FISD Greetings troopers, A month gone already! We don't have a lot to publicly show for this month but that doesn't mean we've been idle. Behind the scenes wheels are turning and soon enough that will start to show more publicly. That said there's a few bits I'd like to cover this month. First it's fundraising season! As I've mentioned previously at the end of the last term we moved to a new faster web server. We also have a few other costs we have to cover and so we are asking you the members to help keep the lights on for another year. Please head over to the thread for more details: One of the other goals for this year is to focus on the CRL backlog and get some over the line. The Captain Enoch CRL is looking positive and in the process of photo collection, before we pass it over to the LMO for their approval. A small discrepancy was noticed in the Incinerator Trooper against the reference images. A change was submitted to the LMO which is provisionally approved. There is currently an issue with updating CRLs so the actual update is still pending, but details are in the thread below: With Unquestioned Loyalty Chris Pearson TK-10991 "themaninthesuitcase" Detachment Leader Greetings fellow troopers As I write this passage, we are currently prepping for a cyclone to hit my region. The expectation is local flooding, strong winds/rain and the usual debris that comes along with these types of weather events. See you on the other side, and hopefully with a better entry to our next Newsletter edition. With Unquestioned Loyalty Andrew Franke TK-11469 "Sly11" Executive Officer Greetings Troopers! Welcome to the official start of Legion Year 2025-26. Let's cover the old business first! Old Business "FISD EIB Coins" EI coins are still available, but the numbers are dwindling. If you are eligible, please look into it. In order to buy one, you have to have an approved EI costume and you can not have ever bought an EIB coin from any pervious runs. EIB coins are a once and done coin. If you have this one and would prefer one of the older versions, I may have an option for you so please dm me. EIB v11 coin run is open "Advance to 1500 Keyring/Zipper pull" Item is in production. I've posted some pictures of the sample. These will ship to the regional distributors along with the SWCJ patches, hopefully very soon. More information can be found here. "FISD Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 patch" Item is in production, and will ship with the Advance to 1500 Keychain/Pull tags to the regional distributors, hopefully, very soon as I want them in hands before the event. More information for the run can be found here. "FISD Stepping Out Challenge Coin" Coin artwork was approved yesterday, and a sample is being created. I will post the sample photo once I have it. Once the sample is approved it will be 10-15 for mass production and then these will ship to the regional distributors. Additional information about this run can be found here. Merch Poll for 2025 is still up. You can find the poll thread here. New Business Secret Merch Item #2 is in the works. Keep your eyes on the forum for details. As always, questions, comments, thoughts, suggestions, please feel free to reach out With Unquestioned Loyalty James Silvius TK-12953 "jsilvius" Merchandise & Branding Officer 2025-2026 Legion elections have now concluded. Congratulations to our continuing Legion Commanding Officer Justin Sonfield TKID74711 "Sonfield" - - - - - - - - And once again Congratulations Chris continuing as FISD Detachment Leader Chris Pearson TK-10911 "themaninthesuitcase" The eyes and ears of the Empire! Please welcome for the 2nd time TK-91213 John to the Stormtrooper Hall of Fame, February 2025! @JBar Troop log can be found here. Brilliant pic! Great work trooper! With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Attaché Ambassador You can find the full meme thread here Blast-A-Trooper Finally after many years of asking the Blast A Trooper files have been shared on the legion forum, sharing here for anyone who may have been looking for them https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_W3-wBM3Gsp5EN_juDwPSCVYhLcpv_MD *NOTE* unfortunately for those of you Down Under due to our PLI (public liability insurance) restrictions we are not able to run Blast A Trooper events as the insurer do not allow the firing of projectiles at our members (I know right, foam darts, ouch ) Thread here Request Edited Signature Banners/Profile pics/Fire Team Logos Troopers! I want to help out the community and the people that doesn't have the time or have the necessary tools or skills to create a cool Signature banner or have the background of your Action Photo removed, or even if you have a request for a certain Profile picture! I don't know how popular this will be, or what requirements I will need, but we will learn as we go and if it turns out to be popular and it gets too much for me - I'm sure that we can find a few more that are willing to help out! Thread here With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Attaché Ambassador Forum Fundraising It's that time of year where we need to pay our bills. As last year we moved away from the temporary legion hosting and on to our own systems we have an increase in costs to cover. As a stretch goal we have also included a proper backup solution into the costs. Currently this is managed manually and adhoc so a proper solution would be a great addition. We would like cover the next 14 months of costs if possible. This means next years admin team are not thrown in with suddenly having to run a fundraiser. The idea will be from then onwards it will be 12 months at a time. Our goal is $762.90 for the 14 months. All members who donate will also have the 2025 supporter banner added to their profile, as with the earlier email costs fundraiser. If you would like to make a donation you can find the fundraiser thread here Trading Card Archives For those with FISD detachment trading cards please consider sending two to Paul @Daetrin keeper of our detachment archives. Address and more info here With Unquestioned Loyalty Paul Hoeffer TK-8020 "Daetrin" Detachment Founder Keeper of Archives LFL Retail Moratorium Lift May 4th & Revenge of the Sith While there is currently a retail moratorium on character appearances in effect, it is being lifted May 1-7 at retailers selling Star Wars Related merchandise during the May the 4th fan holiday. We are also happy to allow appearances at theatres screening Revenge of the Sith. (edited to include dates of April 25 - May 1 for MOVIE re-release only) All fans, costumed or otherwise, can participate with venues of their choice within these windows with the restriction that costumed appearances must not be used in the advertising for the event. Although these appearances will be treated like an open invite, we’ll leave it to the fan groups to independently organize around these events as they see fit. LFL will not need to approve or coordinate these. Please note that retail locations should not include restaurants, bars, or venues with no apparent reason to feature Star Wars characters. Costumed fans should not pose in front of any brands or logos and should not pose holding any merchandise. In the coming weeks, we may send out a list of ‘preferred’ retailers and theatres who would welcome fans to participate at their venues within these event windows, but you are all still welcome to make plans with appropriate retailers or venue hosts of your choice regardless of whether or not they appear on the list. NOTE: We have been asked to keep track of all retail appearances in Latin America. Please have local clubs send retail appearances in Latin America to [email protected] so we can add the appearance to our tracker. I will be reaching out to the groups in Latin America to notify them of this request. Thank you, Alex Vargas Fan Relations Lucasfilm Ltd. *REMEMBER* Always follow your garrison/squad/outpost guidelines when in comes to organizing Disney/LFL promotional troops, only command staff should deal directly with LFL. INFORMATION & AWARD PROGRAMS For a full list of FISD awards programs head here. *Now Available in Swedish* Want to spread the word about FISD?, you can with our FISD Tri-Fold Brochure. Originally these were done in a limited run by the member who created them, but nowadays, we have moved this to a print your own service making them accessible to all countries around the globe. Files are available to all full 501st members on request by contacting our DL Chris @themaninthesuitcase you can find more info here Currently Available languages: English - Spanish - German - Swedish Are you new to the FISD and wondering what the heck all those abbreviations and strange sounding terms mean? To help you @justjoseph63 has started a list of the most commonly used ones that will give you some insight. If you have ANY questions about a particular term that is not listed or suggestions for new ones please contact Joseph. You can find the list here. Pre Approval Forum allows future Troopers the opportunity to submit photos of their completed build to be reviewed by the Staff, Imperial Attaches and others in preparation for forwarding it to their GML for approval. Any and all advice/suggestions given will be specific, constructive, helpful and respectful. Please note that this program will NOT take the place of your local GML, as Detachments are not chartered for costume approval and can not override a GMLs decision, but is instead a peer review program designed to help you look your best and offer guidance and positive feedback. For more information on this program, please visit the link here. Don't forget to visit our 3D section when next surfing the FISD forums, there is plenty of useful information to potentially help you on your next TK adventure. You might be feeling may generous and share with our community a new TK related 3D file and maybe win yourself a 3D contributors award so check out the details below and be part of the in house 3D community. Here is a link to the FISD 3D Contributor program. Don't forget to create a troop log here on FISD and get awarded for your adventures The list of accomplished troopers keeps growing, so get on board and register your troops today Simply start (or update!) your troop log, keep the running total in the title, and post (at least!) a date and name for the official 501st event where you wore your TK! Once you've hit a milestone count, go over to the "Field Exercise Awards -- Post your milestones here" thread to request your profile be updated! Simple, right? Also if you would like your troop photos shared on our social media channels please add the following to the first post of your FISD troop log: I give permission for FISD to repost my photos on social media in an appropriate fashion. Award Recipients February - March TK-98752 "stormztrooper1" Zachary - - - - - - TK-77751 "bpieroni" Bob - - - - - - TK-5376 "TK Keith" Keith - - - - - - TK-77751 "Berbs42" Chris - - - - - - Are you an approved TK that spends more time on the boards than the average Trooper? Do you enjoy using your knowledge to help out future and existing Troopers? If so, we would like to invite you to join the Imperial Attaché program! Members of the I.A. team are chosen to help out not only those here on the boards, but on a local level as well. Our aim is to have at least one in each and every Garrison, Squad and Outpost in the entire legion to be the eyes and ears of the FISD on a local level. If you are a 501st approved Trooper who wishes to join the ranks of the Attachés, please get in touch with me and/or visit: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/15252-fisd-attaché-program/ For a complete list of Imperial Attaches, go here. Some of the benefits include: Access to exclusive Attaché merch, including patches. You may also be in the running for an Imperial Attaché Award. An award for those attaché's who have gone above and beyond [minimum 1 year of service]. You can find a list of prior recipients here. Imperial Attaché Outstanding Achievement Award Is the Attaché position vacant for your Squad/Garrison/Outpost? Interested in becoming an Attaché? Contact me by PM or apply in the thread below: With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Attaché Ambassador Master Armorer Program FISD has many wonderful programs to help members build and submit costumes for our detachment, whether it be a classic Stormtrooper, a First Order Stormtrooper, or even one of the new Imperial Armored Commandos. While our Expect Infantry and Centurion programs get most of the attention, FISD staff wants to relaunch the Armorer Program (Currently called the Master Armorer Program). What is the Armorer Program you ask? Well, it is a program designed to recognize those troopers that go above and beyond to assist themselves and others in getting costumes built, submitted, and approved. One of the goals of all the detachments in the 501st Legion is to help members build and submit costumes that meet and hopefully exceed the minimum requirements of the Legion’s CRLs. Currently the Master Armorer program has the requirement of helping a minimum of 5 members achieve Expert Infantry status. The member must have spent at least 30min physically helping another member with cutting, gluing, sizing, etc, just because they want to help (no money exchanged). There are 3 levels of the award, FISD Armorer, FISD Senior Armorer and FISD Master Armorer. The new program will add a 4th level at the beginning called the Apprentice Armorer. The point scale will be as follows. 5 points - Apprentice Armorer 10 points - Armorer 20 points - Senior Armorer 30 points - Master Armorer If you love building armorer and love helping fellow members get their costumes built, then this is the program you’ve been searching for. We look forward to awarding more members with this award as we know how much we all love Troopers helping Troopers. More information can be found here Armorer Rocker Patches Rocker patches are now available for the Armorer Program, there is currently just the one patch, and members are eligible to receive two of them once they reach Level 2, "Armorer". More information can be found here Want to setup a "Fire Team? the Fire Team program is completely optional, and is intended to help form a common identity and spirit of camaraderie among 501st Legion Stormtroopers in the same geographic area/garrison that troop together. Fire Teams are not officially recognized by the 501st Legion nor the FISD, although they will be able to access a Fire Team sub-forum on the detachment website. You can find more information here. For those interested here is the original discussion on the creation of Fire teams here With Unquestioned Loyalty Mark Ryner TK-4584 "captsafe66" Fire Team Relations So what exactly are and levels? These programs were designed for those who choose to take their armor above and beyond the minimum requirements for basic 501st Legion approval. It gives you the chance to show a level of dedication and pride that takes your armor closer to being as "screen accurate" as possible, without as much extra work as you may realize! You can find more information on the programs here. For those unaware it is possible to achieve extra awards at Expert Infantry for each additional version costume you have approved, additional awards are not issued with another Expert Infantry number (you are only issued 1 Expert Infantry number) but you will see a star above the award on your profile and the thread title will show [APPROVED] 2nd, [APPROVED] 3rd, [APPROVED] 4th and so on. Multiple EIB award recipients and info here NOTE If you are approved with a "2nd Version" of a particular costume that you are already approved with you do not receive an additional award, there is only 1 award issued for each costume version ie: only 1 x Hero, 1 x Stunt, 1 x HWT, 1 x ESB, 1 x TFA and so on. If you have a second/additional version costume approved you will see "2nd Version" and [APPROVED] added to the thread title, no additional profile stars (more info on profile awards here) For those of you who have a particular issue (or issues) before or after submitting for Expert Infantry / Centurion level approval, in order to get you an answer faster you can now privately contact the entire Deployment Officer team at one time! Questions about fitting, repairs, CRL standards/requirements or anything pertaining to reaching Levels 2 and 3 are not only welcomed, but encouraged. Keep in mind that no question is too small, and that your queries will only be seen by the D.O. Staff. We are here to help in any way we can, so please feel free to send us a message by clicking on this link: @Deployment Officer Team and we will get back to you A.S.A.P.! More info here This area lists all those who have gone above and beyond basic approval toward screen accuracy and obtained EIB or Centurion or both. FOR February - March the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment would like to congratulate the following. Expert Infantry Badge Award: Riddick "Riddick322" TK31022 EIB 1088 GREAT job on your approval, now on to Level 3! Request your free EIB certificate here. You can find a list of multiple award recipients here. Multiple EIB award info here Expert Infantry Honor Gallery here --------------------------------------------------------------- Centurion Badge Award: Kaden "Surgtech" TK36544 Centurion 538 Eric "0megaRed" TK30874 Centurion 539 Outstanding job on reaching Centurion, Troopers! Request your free Centurion certificate here. You can find a list of multiple award recipients here. If you see any of these Troopers around your Garrison or Squad, be sure to congratulate them! I'm happy to announce that @Tall_Trooper will join our Social Media Team here on FISD as IPM! He'll be around the forum, sourcing your wonderful pictures for our Socials, so we can show off our amazing troopers online. If you want to get featured on our socials, remember to add the following to the first post of your FISD troop log: I give permission for FISD to repost my photos on social media in an appropriate fashion. Additionally, we're welcoming @Vicky_Velocipanda in our team as DPRO! She will be taking on a special project that we've had in the works for a while now and are looking forward to sharing with all of you over the course of the year. We welcome our new PR support and are looking forward to another term representing the FISD! SD! With Unquestioned Loyalty Luca Hahn TK-66744 "Morgi" Social Media Relations With Unquestioned Loyalty Adam Wolf TK-89400 "Revlimiter" Content Editor Support With Unquestioned Loyalty Vicky Mandlmaier TK-50893 "Vicky_Velocipanda" Content Editor Support With Chris remaining as our Detachment Leader I will still be looking after the newsletter (sorry folks ), As always if you have any interesting stories or photos please send me a PM. Here's to another great year in the detachment With Unquestioned Loyalty Glen "Q" Rhodes TK-85421 "gmrhodes13" PRO, Newsletter Detachment Leader (DL) Chris Pearson (themaninthesuitcase) TK-10911 Detachment Executive Officer (DXO) Andrew Franke (Sly11) TK-11469 Chief Deployment Officer (DCA) Mario Reyes (TKSpartan) TK-48117 Deployment Officer (DCA) José Mª Sánchez (Chemi) TK-30173 Deployment Officer (DCA) Gerald J Gyorffy (Doggydoc) TK-96004 Provost Marshall (DCoG) Steven Sheades (starsaber25) TK-10466 Provost Marshall (DCoG) Caleb Mask (MaskedVengeance) TK-73692 Provost Marshall (DCoG) Arthur Wong (giskard8) TK-39093 FISD Diplomat (DPRO) Tony Jobe (ukswrath) TK-10116 FISD Diplomat (DPRO) Tim Waychoff (Dark PMF) TK-51878 FISD Diplomat (DPRO) Christoph (Danny) Lauber (Ripper_L) TK-55550 Fire Team Relations(DCoG ) Mark Ryner (captsafe66) TK-4584 Merchandise and Brand Officer (DMBO) James Silvius (jsilvius) TK-12953 Trading Card Specialist (DPRO) Eric Ho (Hoda) TK-77520 Newsletter Publisher (DPRO) Glen Rhodes (gmrhodes13) TK-85421 Social Media Relations (DPRO) Luca Hahn (Morgi) TK-66744 Content Editor Support (DPRO) Adam Wolf (Revlimiter) TK-89400 Content Editor Support (DPRO) Vicky Mandlmaier (Vicky_Velocipanda) TK-50893 Content Editor Support (DPRO) Jeff Salt (Wingnut65) TK-50297 Attaché Ambassador (DPRO) Jonatan Östling (Nairy) TK-23592 Personnel Officer (DPER): AC (NoVATie) TK-5597 Systems Administrator (DWM) Mathias Rodstedt (Locitus) TK-2959 Systems Administrator (DWM) Eric Brager (Darth Aloha) TK-9674 Systems Administrator/Detachment Founder (DF) Paul Hoeffer (Daetrin) TK-8020 Imperial Propaganda Machine (IPM) Brian Long (Tilheyra) TK-47933 Imperial Propaganda Machine (IPM) Torben Sobierey (Tall_Trooper) TK-19525 Facebook: www.facebook.com/whitearmor - - - Facebook Group: 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment (FISD) Official Twitter: www.twitter.com/FISD501st or @FISD501st - - - Instagram: www.instagram.com/fisd501st Discord: https://discord.gg/FmQZ2qW8gx - - - Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fisd501st.bsky.social On behalf of the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment Command Staff and the Imperial Propaganda Department

Hi Mario, I've been plugging away at this, and I think I'm nearly there. Here are three of the four areas that I've fixed: The trigger area has been difficult. There are several layers of filler and Bondo now, in this tricky area. The lines are gone, but it's a bit lumpy now. Is that acceptable (please excuse all the areas I masked off to get this done)? The area around the "S" has some terrain there . Also, I smoothed out the lines around the base of the selector switch.

Looks fantastic. That chrome is such a different look! Or at least it was until that pesky mando showed up.

Yeah, would be good if I could just pay in dollars as I am pretty sure my bank gives me a better rate!

Sent Transaction ID: 7HA39927KS553961M

Hi Will, We are here to support you as much as possible. As Glen mentioned above, we specifically look after Stormtroopers, but that does not mean we won't help you if you desire a different costume. We have thousands of members who have built other costumes, this includes many of the command staff. We also have a section called Other areas of interest, where members post about what they are working on or have completed from other Detachments and outside the Star Wars universe. Let us know what costume you desire, and we will give assistance and also put you in contact with the right people to get you on your journey.

Sent! PP: 2FV72661EW162682V

Credits sent. 51851457CA139333N

Welcome Jake

Done. Bart

Credits in! PP# 74B70326L3805611G Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Paypal Sent! 340346953F3182414

Done! thanks as always

Done! 7V576810734122731

Sent some credits! 0Y920665RC151502V

Sent TID 14M03082T35076138

Unquestioned Loyalty

$25 Donated PP 2NN752842A134161W Thank you for all you do!

Donated 1WK52659AL5985728

Donated 3K5018739H6505528

Well, that exchange rate was as horrendous as always 9CM18698FE2177029

Done. 9X168253P2165225R

Went dark for a bit because we had our big local convention - and I got to debut Phasma on conditional approval! Full size photos here: Imgur Album A little proof that it was me in the costume edit: double posted the last image

Oof. That exchange rate! Transaction ID: 86425644L41592939

Done. Donation ID 9VM30631GH681883A

Hi Jake. Welcome. Very excited to see your costume. Congratulations

Hello and welcome aboard, hope to see you in crispy white soon

Sent 9JL48985FC102901B

Funds sent!

All done. Transaction ID 2MN78944A0953530N

Donation from email removed sent. 5XD85746MR101103D

Hello and welcome aboard. A few threads you may want to have a look through for the shorter of height https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38416-crickets-rs-stunt-build-for-the-vertically-challenged/ https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38842-fragarocks-rs-stunt-build-not-to-scale/ https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/42868-sha-shas-wtf-anh-stunt-build-complete/ You'll find a lot of helpful build info in this thread https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/49412-all-in-one-tk-anh-stunt-index-of-resources-by-maskedvengeance/ Also our gallery sections full of references https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/category/19-ottk-reference/ Remember there are no silly questions, just silly mistakes from not asking 😉 Oh and measure twice cut once. Looking forward to seeing your progress, good luck

Please Enable me for 501 Access TK-56071 https://www.501st.com/members/displaymember.php?userID=34329&costumeID=124 (Costume Resources Page) https://www.501st.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=24027 (Profile Page) Golden Gate Garrison

So Im going to put this out there. as much as it is an awesome group. Who do amazing things to help those in the community. There is always that very small percentage that is negative. I have chosen to ignore that and get on with what Im doing, that is kitting up as the action figure and making kids and adults smile. I give up my time, that maybe a small amount of time or a couple of days for some events. To raise money. But with that, there is a negative. Might be a small comment like "suck your guts in" (just recently). Now I know I have a bit of a stomach. But that has a lasting effect. And when it comes from a fellow member, hurts that bit more. But I keep doing what I do, because I love it. Im me and you accept it or you dont. But expect that at one time that person may blow up from that comment. Like any normal person. At the end of the day that is what we all are, just normal people. Doing a bit more to help others. As for difficult people submitting for approval. That is out of frustration, also could be because of the negative comments that had been made to them. Goes both ways. But people need to be educated. and those who have been around long enough maybe should help new recruits with the kit they want to get approved. Or maybe inform them they could ask someone who can help them out. We all want to move the Legion forward with more recruits, maybe a little help would go along way to getting them onboard.

thank you everyone

I can tell you from personal experience that it just takes one person (and in my case it was a 501st TK) to throw water on someone's hopes. Thankfully a lot has changed since then. I vowed that should I ever get to the 501st that I would never be "that guy" who dashes someone's hope. After that, for a short while, I had nothing good to say about the 501st. It was an elitist group that forgot what they were supposed to represent and were taking themselves far too seriously for walking around in plastic armor. My point is, not everyone is good at PR and should a 501st member be that someone it is better to defer to the member who is good at it. I spent many hours at the club table during my first troop talking to lots of people and no one was anything but excited about the 501st. Everyone got the idea of the bad guys doing good and were excited about it. When the day comes that a Karen or Ken is going to try and give us grief I'm prepared with the facts. You might not change their mind with those facts but you can deliver them and move on to the person who does want to see you there. I see no point in whipping a dead horse if their mind can't be changed or they just want to make trouble. Bart And, there is still nothing cooler than seeing lots of the shinny white armor together in a group. That is just plain cool and will never grow old.

A lot comes from our costuming standards, some not understanding and frustrated they haven't been approved so the first thing to do is yell out on social media the legion is too strict. That's not to diminish some peoples experience in the legion a lot can be negative but I find the positive more out ways the negative. Every club has it's issues, look at our former LCO takes to social media and rants over issues she encounered, that's not the way a club leader should act. Social media is the easiest way to get negativity out there in the world, it has a lot to answer for. Mostly my time in the legion has been positive, hopefully that remains until I call it a day.

The other reality is most who say such negative things are those who don’t want to put effort into replica costumes or sadly those who were disfellowshipped from 501st due to any number of reasons. I generally don’t see much in terms of negativity from most people. Even as a GML when I work with individuals who don’t have approvable costumes or think I’m strict once I explain the details and the quality differences I’d say most understand and then find themselves asking how to get to that point rather than getting offended. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Those posting the negative comments online obviously have no idea what we represent. If they would bother to dig a little deeper into our organization, they would find that we have raised over $360,000.00 for the "Make-A-Wish" foundation and many, many thousands more for local charities. We spend crazy amounts of money building our costume(s) and then drive countless miles to appear (for free) at the events we attend on our own time. Remember, we only show up when we are invited, and this includes children's hospitals, police community events, parades, etc. We are asked back to these events year after year for a reason. Yes, we are the "bad guys", but what kid wouldn't want to meet a "real life" Stormtrooper who gives them a high-five? We don't do this for notoriety. We do it because we care. Yeah, it's fun to dress up as your favorite SW character, but when you see a giant ear-to-ear smile on a kid (or adult) at a troop it makes all the time (and money) you spent building that costume worthwhile. "Bad guys doing good". Side note: I have been on more troops than I can count, and I have noticed that the vast majority of those wanting photos with members of the 501st (especially TKs) FAR outweighs those wanting a pic with a Jedi. No offense to you Rebel Legion types, lol.

https://www.501st.com/mission.php I say the mission says exactly what is necessary. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk